'X' Marks The Spot For Controversy

The designation of two new films as X-rated has rekindled debate over the 21-year-old movie-classification system of the Motion Picture Association of America.

An ''X'' rating means that no one younger than 17 is permitted to see a movie, and an ''R'' means that people under 17 are admitted only in the company of adults.

Despite those restrictions, Jack Valenti, the president of the MPAA, the industry trade group that started the ratings system in 1968, insists the system is nothing more than a guide to parents that in no way dictates behavior to filmgoers, filmmakers or exhibitors.

Yet many filmmakers and distributors maintain that the system is a form of censorship.

They say it prevents serious adult films from reaching a wider audience because the advertising and distribution of X-rated movies are severely limited and may affect their subsequent acceptability on cable channels.

Many of these critics are calling for a new ratings designation, saying it fails to distinguish between films that have adult themes and those that are exploitatively violent or pornographic.

The two X-rated films in question are The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Both were submitted to the association and were given an X. Their distributors then rejected the X and decided to release the movies unrated.

Producers voluntarily submit their films for a rating because they are given wider release in theaters.

If they don't get the R rating they want, they may decide to release the films unrated in hopes that they may appear in a few more theaters than they would with an X rating.

Cook, playing in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Miami, New York, Washington, San Francisco and Seattle, is a drama of revenge by the British writer and director Peter Greenaway.

In chronicling the rise and fall of a vicious gangster who abuses everyone around him, including his wife, the film depicts the murder and maiming of people.

There are explicit sex scenes, a child is tortured and there is cannibalism.

Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, said of the film, ''This isn't a freak show; it's a deliberate and thoughtful film in which the characters are believable and we care about them.''

Caryn James, in her review in the New York Times, called Cook ''elegant, stylized and brutal,'' adding that ''though it is not easy to sit through this film, which begins by pushing the thief's most repulsive behavior in our faces, Mr. Greenaway creates such intensity that it is impossible to turn away from the screen.''

Henry, directed by John McNaughton, is on view only in Detroit, New York and Austin, Texas.

The film's subject is a drifter who winds up on death row in Texas. It graphically portrays the mutilation of the killer's victims.

Richard Corliss, in Time magazine, called McNaughton ''a coroner with a touch of the poet.''

James, in the Times, said the film was ''profoundly disturbing.''

Valenti defended the X ratings in general and the system.

''We are getting no letters from parents demanding that we end the rating system,'' he said.

''And our opinion polls for years have shown that 70 to 73 percent of parents find it useful. All the complaints are coming from producers, who want to push the outer edge of the envelope.''

Richard Heffner, chairman of the association's classification and rating administration, said, ''The X rating is the only means we have of saying to parents, 'We think that due to violence, language, sexuality, nudity or other reasons, this film is not for children.' ''

He said of filmmakers: ''We're not asking them to censor their films. No film has to participate in the process, or even stay with the rating we give them.''

Heffner's California-based rating board consists of parents who are not otherwise involved in the movie business. The board has nine voting positions.

Heffner is also the parents' advocate before hearings of the appeals board in New York. It has 22 members from the movie industry, and a filmmaker can ask it to change a rating.

Russell Schwartz, the executive vice president of Miramax Films, which is distributing Cook, took issue with Heffner, saying, ''The X rating can keep a film from finding an adult audience.

''Often, they're not allowed to play them in malls due to real-estate contracts that forbid X-rated films. The lack of an R rating is already limiting the outlets we have across the country.''

The competition to have rated films shown in the most desirable theaters means that unrated films are at a disadvantage, but not as much as if they were rated X.

It is up to individual theaters to enforce the association's rating system. At the releasing companies' requests, theaters that are playing Cook agreed to bar people under 18, and those showing Henry agreed to exclude people under 17.